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Apple earns PC Magazine\'s Reader Choice Awards

updated 03:30 pm EDT, Wed August 24, 2005

by MacNN Staff

Apple tops PC Mag survey

Apple once again received the highest score among all PC vendors in PC Magazine's 18th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey, . Based on data from readers on over 26,000 PCs, Apple "ran up the score against the Windows opposition," receiving a higher score in every single survey result. Apple recieved an overall score of 9.2 in both the desktop and notebook categories, well ahead the No. 2 place vendor, Alienware (8.8) and IBM (8.2), respectively. The report, however, cautioned against possible bias from a passionate user base and also noted Apple's "stingy" warranty policies as well as some problems with the recently released iMac G5.

"Once again, Apple achieves scores that are far and away the highest for all vendors in our survey, earning Readers' Choices in both desktops and notebooks. For Apple, in both the desktop and notebook sections of the survey, every single score is significantly better than the industry average for Windows machines. No exceptions. Apple's overall score for desktops is 9.2, and the closest competing score, Alienware's, is 8.8. Apple's overall score for notebooks, 9.2, is just as high, and the rest are even further behind: IBM and Fujitsu are the closest, at 8.4."

Despite the high grade, the magazine questions the effect of Apple's highly loyal customer base: as a precaution, it removed them from the overall PC mix average, creating a new for Windows-based PC and allowing the report to compare Apple's scores to the "average" Windows PC.

"For the first time, we've removed Apple from the mix when calculating these relative weightings. Whether because Apple's products are truly so much better than everyone else's or because Apple's customers st" warranty policy, saying that it "walks a thin line with its tech support. Support calls to Apple are more likely to result in an extra charge, according to the survey and Apple's 90-day tech support and one-year parts/labor warranty policy is well short of other vendors--some of whom offer lifetime of toll-free technical support and on-site service and repair.are so passionate about their products, the company scores so high that it's like the class genius blowing the curve. More importantly, however, when shopping for a system, buyers are apt to compare Apple's platform to the Windows platform--not just to, say, Dell's product line or HP's. By removing Apple from the calculation of averages, we can compare Apple machines with the 'average' Windows PC."

However, the report, does say that survey responses to specific repair questions, may not be suspect, since it requires a less subjective answers: "On the desktop side, readers say that Apple systems needed repairs only 11 percent of the time, an astonishing number when you consider that the closest competing score is Sony's at 16 percent. Just 17 percent of Apple notebooks needed repair--second to Averatec's 14 percent--but this is still amazingly low considering that no one else is under 20 percent."

The report, however, notes that Apple has "the stingiest" warranty policy, saying that it "walks a thin line with its tech support. Support calls to Apple are more likely to result in an extra charge, according to the survey and Apple's 90-day tech support and one-year parts/labor warranty policy is well short of other vendors--some of whom offer lifetime of toll-free technical support and on-site service and repair.

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There's a reason why Mac users like the product. Tell me one product that you would rate highly if it didn't perform highly.

If you compare Apples to Dells, there is a huge difference in all accounts. As for "Stingy Warranty", you need to buy a warranty on a Dell if you want it to extend beyond a year. Apple is no different, except for the fact that if you have an issue with something that is a common problem, Apple will still fix it, even out of warranty (just sent in a laptop for somebody with a G4 laptop with the white spots on the screen. That problem was known and fixed years ago and Apple will still repair it).

All computer manufacturers have issues from time to time. Apple does stand behind their stuff and the actual problems are far and between.

I wonder if they "filtered out" the super loyal windows users to rate the PCs on par as well? Oh there were none? Huh?!?!
As mentioned loyalty comes from superior stuff unless they are alleging that Apple has some sort of mystery drug or uses sleep deprivation and sugar to put users in a cult like trance. I don't like everything Apple does or the way it does it but I like my Macs!

Why is that unfair ? I buy a Mac for Mac OS and sure the good looking HW. But, I could also run certain versions of Linux, AND Virtual PC!
VPC may not be rocket speed but running basic apps in it is just fine on a G4/G5.

I bought some apples and within a couple of weeks they were black puddles breeding fruit flies. No phone support and no free replacement. Of course, that was not as bad as when my windows broke. No phone support, no free replacement, and I cut myself while fixing it my self (since it could be installed anywhere there was a hole I figured I'd be a doityerselfer.

"Stingy warranty policy" is absolute right! I've been one of the most devout Apple fans since the 1980s, but I am fed up with having had to replace eight logic boards (maybe more; I've lost count) in my 800 MHZ iBook G3, and the heat sink is giving off a strong melted wax smell even now, indicating that a ninth replacement is just around the corner, meaning that the next replacement after that will be just past the three-year extended warranty limit. I've lost thousands of dollars in lost income, having had to wait about two weeks for each replacement. I agree with "stingy" because any other manufacturer would have replaced the iBook long ago, rather than replacing countless faulty logic boards.

may be stingy (no opinion there) but in my opinion their service is fabulous. If you need something done, you call them, they get dhl to deliver a box the same day, pick it up the same day, and deliver it back to you within two days (generally less than two days). This, and I live in a tiny town nowhere near a major city. I have done this repeatedly, and every time I have it back in under two days from when I call. I have never heard of any other company's service on warranties to come close (or for that matter paid service too, as apple also did this when I paid for an out of warranty repair).

but yeah, I mainly like my mac because it works without having to fight with bizarre incompatibilities and registry corruption. I have a friend that re-builds his windows machine at work completely every three months. Nutty.

...my pc (toshiba laptop) has worked flawlessly for over two years while my Ti 400 has needed the hinges tightened & has had occasional glitches reading discs - no repairs though... Apple has in the past been very good about replacing defective parts, although I have yet to need a repair under the new 'regime' & I do wish the 90 day support would be 1 year...

...a 90 day warranty! You can buy a longer warranty of course. That's how they get you. I remember when Dells came with a 3-year warranty...

Yeah, but that's just the 'cheap' dells. Are you comparing cheap dells to the expensive (or any) macs? Buy a $3000 mac, get 90 days phone support. Oooh, its like a bargain or something!

And bear in mind that Dell's extended warranty coverage to get to three years cost a lot less then apples.

As far as service goes, I have nothing to compare it to, so its hard to say whether its stellar or not. All I know is the first time I called to complain about my iBook's video crapping out, they wanted me to boot from the CD to see if that would help. Which, of course, I couldn't since I was calling from work and my install disks were at home (I reinstalled the OS previously, because I figured they were going to ask and I wanted to dump the hard drive before I sent it off). So I had to call back, but then their service lines close at 6pm PST, so I had to wait another day to say "Hey, it froze again!" before they'd send me a box. (Oh, and I don't know how some people get boxes same day, mine have always come next day).

Me, on my third iBook logic board... And my third iPod (once the video stopped working, once I replaced the battery, since I forked over the money for the service plan, I figured I might as well get my money's worth).

I do remember the good ol' days, though, when my Macs never had problems (Oh, well, OK, the original 128K and 512K macs had power supply issues, and those were a real pain in the a** because they cost huge money to replace).

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